Our Family is a Little Strange, but We Love it that Way
by RandomViolets
Summary: When Keith and Lance have an awkward encounter in a storage room, things start going downhill. Lance begins to realize that Keith's bravado isn't all they've cracked it up to be. Tensions rise, secrets are revealed, and somehow, a little alien girl just may save them all. /On hiatus/.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Klance fluff, lions and paladins family fluff, kind of set early in the series. Nothing really is going to mention much canon plot unless it happened in episodes more or less, they've been a team for a few months now, and everyone is more or less getting along like 78% of the time. (non-explicit male x male, but it's there, and there will be some kiss scenes. Don't like, don't read.) I own nothing except my OC and the non-canon plot of this fic. If I did own Voltron, Klance would already be a thing, and it would probably not be a kids show anymore. It's probably not great, keep in mind that I'm a highschooler, and not an outstanding writer. Hope you enjoy!

Our Family is a Little Strange, but We Love it that Way

Chapter one: See me through the walls I've built

Keith POV: I groaned in annoyance as I climbed aboard the blue lion. Lance was already setting up in the pilot's seat, and glanced back at me with a kind of resigned look on his face, and said nothing as I buckled in. Allura had decided that it would be a good idea to send the two of us on a diplomatic excursion to a small planet nearby. I always suck at diplomacy. Me _and_ Lance? Its rarely a good combination outside of battle.

We were silent and awkward during takeoff, the weird tension that had been building between us for the last two weeks making everything feel stiff. Which was most likely the reason we got paired up in the first place. That's Allura's usual tactic when it gets awkward between a few of us. Find a small, relatively peaceful mission lasting around five to ten earth days, and force us to pair up with whoever our tension is centered around. Usually, it works pretty well. Except I'm fairly certain that the tension between me and Lance is there for a completely different reason than Pidge getting irritated with Hunk for messing with her stuff for the nth time.

We still hadn't started speaking-or arguing-after several minutes of flight. I sighed quietly, sneaking a sidelong look at Lance from the passenger bench. His face was stony calm- _never_ a good thing with Lance, as I had learned. Lance usually wore his heart on his sleeve-most of it anyways. In the months we had spent training together, all of us had begun to pick up on each other's little quirks. Lance, when he was truly, genuinely upset about something, was like a caldera. Calm on the surface, but raging and unstable underneath that facade. One wrong move could summon a hurricane.

No, our awkwardness is not because of something stupid we said-or maybe it is, I don't know anymore. Its because of what I'm not saying. I've been pulling away from the team, mostly to distance myself from Lance. Because stupid me had to fall in love with the guy who hates my guts. Because, isn't there supposed to be some rule that says "You can't date your co-workers?" Because damnit I've had a crush on him- _his stupid, charming, flirtatious self-_ since we were in the Garrison. Which might have originally been fine. I could handle it like every other stupid crush I've had on people since I figured out I was gay when I was twelve. Except I couldn't. Because my "strategy" for dealing with these things wasn't to confront them head on, like almost everything else, but instead to ignore it, shun it, and pray to every deity that may or may not exist that it will _go away._

But Lance was always _there._ And me being the socially inept jackass that I am, could only find a solution in pushing him away. Again, and again, and again. Somehow, in all of that, Lance stuck around, god only knows _why,_ and we became rivals. The rivalry, and the crush, and my general dislike of the higher ups, ended in me getting expelled, finding the lions, reuniting with Shiro and Lance, and really meeting Hunk and Pidge. Over the months I was gone from the Garrison, I thought I got over Lance. Then he shows up and pulls the old rivalry shit again-trying to save Shiro as well. The second I looked up to see him, my heart had stuttered in my chest, and my mind went blank. _Because shit, he got even cuter in those seven months._ Despite all of that, I felt I had kept my very confusing crush on the-quite obviously straight-paladin well enough under wraps.

Then two weeks ago happened. Both of us had been doing some cleaning in one of the castle's many storage rooms, and we ended up arguing-nothing new there-over something stupid. Then-I burry my face in my hands at the memory, trying to suppress my blush. Fuck, I am the red paladin damnit, but looking at Lance for a second too long turns me into a blushing school-girl.

 _Flashback_

I packed up the box I was looking through in the Altean storage room, and shoved it back onto the shelf. I sniffed quietly, and looked for another box to sort through as Lance swept ten thousand years of dust from the place.

My nose tickled again. Oh no. I tried to suppress it in my sleeve, but only succeeded in burying my face into a patch of dust- which only aggravated the mild allergy attack.

"Achoo!" I sneezed. I heard Lance stop his sweeping, the rustle of the broom ceasing. I sneezed three more times until the allergy bout stopped.

"Oh my god." Lance muttered. Staring at me with wide, amused eyes, and a vicious smile. "That was adorable."

I groaned. Figures he'd have heard me. My face warmed at the comment, but I stubbornly ignored the urge to duck my head in embarrassment. I had to have the stupidest sneeze ever. I had been teased for it pretty much my whole life. "Fuck off," I growled. The tactic losing its intimidation factor due to my sniffling nose and pink face.

"You sound just like a kitten sneezing!" He laughed, eyes tearing up with mirth.

"Shut up Lance!"

"No! Oh, Pidge is gonna love this. I wonder if any of her cameras could have caught that.." Lance mused, pulling out his pager to ask the younger crew member about it.

I growled again, lunging for the device to stop him.

He laughed and danced away from me, blue eyes glittering with amusement.

'Oh god. He looks too adorable like that.' I lamented internally, heart twisting in a not-unpleasant way at the look of utter mirth on his face. "Lance, stop" I ordered, lunging for him again.

He looked at me smugly, eyes dancing wickedly, "Make me."

I stopped thinking. Things usually went badly when I did that. Oh well. I lunged for him again, this time tackling him to the floor. My only goal was to get the pager _out of his hands_. Lance froze underneath me, and I snatched the pager. About .05 ticks later, I realized what position we were in. I was straddling his waist, one hand on his chest pinning him to the ground, and the other stretched above us both, the pager half in my hand, half in his. My eyes widened and I froze, information catching up to me. I tilted my head down rapidly to look at Lance ' _Shit I shouldn't have done that.'_ I thought desperately. Wide blue eyes stared back-much closer than they should have been. All thoughts vanished when Lance opened his mouth to breathe-his breath should _not_ have been that close to my mouth.

There were literal millimeters between us. If either of us moved, our lips would be brushing, or our noses would collide. I blanked, face frozen in shock-and probably fear too-as my brain abandoned me to the whirling thoughts of ' _OhShitOhShitOhShitOhShitOhShit'._

One of the doors slammed down the hallway, jarring me out of whatever trance I was in- _blue eyes_ STop it brain. No. Bad. I leapt off him, leaving the pager in his grip anyways, and quickly retreated to the bathroom.

 _Present Time_

The two of us hadn't spoken to each other properly-or argued much, which, given that its _us_ and when we're together we can't seem to behave like we're older than two, is even weirder. We weren't fighting. We weren't avoiding each other-I think. We just went about our normal schedules. Without really interacting outside of team stuff and meals...which was also team stuff. Shit.

I sighed quietly, and tilted my head to look at the passing stars as Blue guided us to the planet. The thought of the lion reminded me of Red, and my chest ached a little. Everyone knew that the bond between a paladin and their lion was special, but somehow I got the feeling that mine was a little different from the others. Different _. Again._ I've always been the "different" one. Foster parents. Jumping home to home until I went to the Garrison, and was declared legal. As weird as it was, and probably sad too honestly, Red felt like a mom to me.

Sure, I've had foster moms who tried. I've had a couple of them who were actually really great. I just suck. At everything. Especially opening up to people. It was weird if I thought about it too long-which I try not to do anymore, it only causes me even more anxiety than usual. Red, the sentient robot who is who-knows-how-many-years-old, is the closest thing I can remember to having as a _home._ Yes, the others are great, and I care about them. And if I'm honest with myself I see them as family too, though they probably don't. I'm just some emo hot-shot who gets angry a lot. I swallow back a lump in my throat. This really wasn't the time to dwell on my insecurities.

Red and I were having issues. Not Voltron-malfunctioning issues, or else Shiro and Allura would have stepped in already. It felt like there was a wall between me and Red now. And it hurt. It was only a few months ago that I found her, and I'd grown so used to hearing her in the back of my head-reassuring purrs, snorts of amusement, and growls, to get me back when my anxiety spiked too high. Now it was muted. It was still there, but…..it felt like she was tired. Like she was giving up on something. Probably me. Of course it was my fault. It always was.

I loved being around the others, Hunk and his sweet innocent smiles and constant hugs, Pidge and her little evil smirks and witty banter, Shiro's constant calm presence and parental stability, Coran's insane stories and whimsical nonsense that can make anyone laugh, Allura's tough love and steady energy somehow keeping us all coherent. And Lance and his stupid jokes when they feel down, and his grin when he makes them laugh, and his homesickness that makes me want to hug him and fix everything. But I was pulling away. It wasn't just because of Lance, it wasn't anything in particular that I could think of. It felt like something I couldn't fix.

It was my fault. I knew the problem. I knew what needed to happen, but, somehow...I couldn't fix it. Maybe it wasn't something that could be fixed. Everyone else was so _natural_ on the team. They each added something positive. All I ever did was cause problems. I was only here because they needed a red paladin-and _why oh why_ did Allura choose me-and somehow Red accepted me. Now is a time when I could really use Red-I'm not sure why Allura didn't let me bring her along in the first place-but I don't have her now, and something inside my chest clenches again. I tune in again and see that we are about to land, I breathe in, and carefully shove my anxiety away to the back of my mind. Like always. Let's get this over with.

Lance Pov(pre-takeoff): I sit in Blue's cockpit waiting for Keith to show up. Bonding exercise here we come. After the incident in the storage room, I wasn't sure what to make of this….situation with Keith. It's been two weeks since then, and Allura finally got fed up with our awkwardness and intervened. I'm really glad she did, because Keith and I really need some time together, without training and Pidge's cameras breathing down our necks, to talk this out.

I've liked Keith for a while. Might have had a crush on him at the Garrison even, though that got really entangled with our rivalry, so it was kind of hard to tell sometimes. Though I always figured he would have no interest-for many reasons, though the top ones being, we're guys and he's probably as straight as I am Bi, and he'd never see me as worth his time. In more recent weeks though, I've noticed little ticks about him. The tiny smiles he gets when everyone is actually getting along peacefully for once. His laughter at me and Hunk's stupid antics, real and genuine and childish. The glances he sends to my back when he seems to think I can't see his eyes moving in the reflection of the windows.

Made me start reconsidering my chances. Then that almost kiss in the storage room….

What bothered me the most, wasn't the fact that he had run, or even the awkwardness between us now. It was the look of absolute terror on his face when he realized what we were doing. Had I read it all wrong? But, ok, even if he didn't like me-or did, and had only just realized it or something-that shouldn't have provoked _fear._ Not like that.

It made me start mulling over every detail of physical contact I could remember any of the crew having with him. Yes, he was always pretty stiff about it, but never _afraid._ Keith and afraid just didn't go together. Then in the last two weeks I really noticed it. The little flinches, the sad shadow in his eyes for _just a second_ that accompanies the cute team bonding moments, the fingers twitching around his arms, and arms pulling tighter against himself-crossed against his chest. I just didn't know _why._ Was I that blind? Had it been there all along? Were we all just really stupid? Or was Keith finally hitting his breaking point?

All of us had, at some point. We were homesick. We didn't sign up for the whole "Defenders of the Universe" thing. We were just kids who wanted our families. Me, Hunk, and Pidge had already dealt with our (first) major homesickness battle. I wonder if Keith was just hitting his…..What was home to Keith? That little shack in the middle of nowhere? What about his family, I can't remember him ever talking about them. Does he have a family?

I took one look at Keith's face when he entered the cockpit, the shadows were there heavier than ever. Blue whined a little in my head, her concern for the red paladin washing over me in anxious waves. I thought about the "mission" details that Allura had given me. I'm not gonna tell him. Not yet anyways.

Mentally, I ask Blue to help me with Keith, see if she could find something I could use to help fix-whatever the hell this was. Because I know, and I think Allura does too, if this "mission" is any clue, that Keith isn't just pulling away from me. He's pulling away from all of us. Blue said something, which she probably shouldn't have, but it was helpful either way. Red was worried about Keith. That alone was enough to set off about half a dozen alarm bells in my head. Then she said that Keith was distancing himself from her. That set off another series of alarms, worse than before. Keith _loved_ Red. All of us loved our lions, but Keith and Red were different than the rest of us. Our lions treated us like partners-or gossip partners in my case, though I'm not sure it's really gossip if the "news" is ten thousand years old and Altean. But Red treated Keith like her son, like her _cub_ more than her paladin. It made me wonder about Keiths mom on earth, and what his relationship was like with her.

Blue agrees instantly, a worried buzzing of energy that reminded me of a cat flicking its tail greeted my head.

I spend the flight watching the monitors in silence, and listening to Blue's subtle readings of the other paladin. If her whines of worry in the back of my head weren't enough, the tiny, almost unheard hitch of breath behind me seals it ' _I am so glad Allura gave us a fake mission.'_ I thought.

Keith _was_ at his breaking point. And for whatever reason, his way of dealing with it seemed to be to ignore it. I glanced back at him briefly, his head was turned to face the window, staring blankly at the stars flashing by, and looking for all the world like a kid who _really, really_ needs a hug. I turn back to the front before he notices, if he's aware of anything at all. Blue sends me another worrying message. He's hurting. Not physically, or I would have brought us to a screeching halt, and hauled his ass back to the healing pod. No, he's hurting emotionally.

My mind is whirling with a thousand possible reasons why, when another, softer, and just as concerned message interrupts. He's lonely. That would have been enough to make me lose the controls, had Blue not been auto-piloting for a while now. Lonely?

I wanted to kick myself. Fuck. Of course that's what it was, I groaned mentally. I'm so stupid. I had half a mind to unbuckle myself and pull Keith into a massive hug, but I kind of figured that would get me an emotional and angry Keith, and an irritated Blue. So I resolved to wait until we land and settle into our arrangements.

That explains everything. He's always there for team bonding, always a part of it, but now that I _really_ think about it, he's never really been included in much of the affection part. Verbally, yes, but physically? Hunk will sometimes pull him in for a rare hug (for Keith) after a mission gone well, or a particularly close incident. Pidge will sometimes fling herself to his shoulders when frightened, or give him a friendly shove during one of their "witty comebacks battles". And Shiro's pat on the shoulder were normal for everyone after a mission gone well. But besides those? And so many other times. Game night, it was always me, Hunk, and Pidge. Shiro sits on the couch to make sure we don't start actually brawling. Something that has happened more than once. But Keith? Always training. There were so many others too….we had always been ignoring it. It was Keith. Keith trained. That was normal.

I resisted the heavy urge to smash my head against the control panel. This won't solve everything. But maybe if I can find the root of what the hell is keeping Keith from joining in, aside from our own stupidity and blindness, I might be able to make a fair start.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two: We're both really fucking stupid

Lance pov: We disembark Blue and step onto the little, and mostly abandoned planet. Jingora, a small, misty, and green planet had long ago been an Altean vacation spot. It had no great mineral source, population, or general use other than to look pretty, so the Galra had never bothered with it. Keith looks dazed, and tired. Really tired. Fuck, has he been sleeping alright?

I purse my lips, and beckon him forward, "C'mon Keith, we've got to get into the checkpoint." I say, walking to the large Altean home, which had been refurbished throughout the week before by Hunk and Pidge on various "missions".

He said nothing as we entered, but looked thoroughly confused, and on edge as no one greeted us for the "diplomacy" part of the "mission".

"..hey, Lance, where are they? Didn't Allura say the inhabitants would meet us here?" the other paladin asks, sounding slightly hesitant, hand twitching for his bayard.

I pulled a key from the duffel bag I'd brought with us off of Blue, and unlocked the door. Keith followed me inside warily.

"Yeah, about that. There actually is no mission. Allura sent us out here because we needed somewhere to chat a bit without the whole castle watching. There is no diplomacy mission. We're basically on a one week vacation here to try to fix whatever the hell has been happening since the storage room thing." I state bluntly. Beating around the bush wasn't exactly my specialty…particularly when dealing with Keith.

Keith looks momentarily panicked.

"And that," I say pointing to his face. I'm normally a lot nicer about emotional stuff, but Keith is dealing with a lot, and I get the feeling nothing will be fixed if I let it progress on its own. We're both too stubborn for that to work.

He blinks in confusion. "My face?" He sounds slightly offended.

"Your expression," I clarified. "You look terrified. Of me. Its weird. Same look you had on before you bolted out of the storage room after the awkward almost kiss thing." there is no humour in my voice right now, or accusation. I'm just stating blunt facts and trying to see how he reacts.

He freezes and goes through about twenty different expressions before settling on something that really resembled a startled bird. Wide eyed, anxious, and masks torn down. Now we're getting somewhere.

"I-I…"he tries to find words. I can see his fist clenching and unclenching rapidly, and the nervous wiggle of fingers at his side.

I step forward, gauging his every reaction as I moved. Something that Allura apparently did not know about the Blue lion tendencies,(or, I had disturbed her from saying perhaps) was meticulous and observant. Or maybe that was just me, and why I became our sharpshooter.

I moved closer, carefully caging him against the solid entryway table I'd set the duffel on, without actually touching him. He could escape if he really wanted to. Or if he started actually panicking. Finally, with only inches of space between us, the last of those facades broke down. I was really glad at this moment that I could have a damn good poker face when I wanted to, because otherwise I probably would have reeled back from shock and discomfort.

The Keith I was looking at right now was a very different Keith from the one I met in the Garrison. He was small-seeming to physically sag and shrink in on himself. His face held none of his usual smugness or confidence. Only anxiety and a raw _sadness_ that made my heart ache to see. Normally sharp amethyst eyes were a dull, misty violet, and showing a vulnerability that made me want to find whoever caused him to feel like this and punch their lights out-which would probably mean me. And maybe some of the others. Damn.

Keith, strong, seemingly invulnerable Keith who we turn to when Shiro isn't around, looked so _small and vulnerable and wrong._ I looked at him quietly, and pulled him into a hug. I could feel the shudders and sobs wracking his body, even as he tried to muffle them against his hand. I led him over to one of the plushy altean couches and flopped us both down on it. Looks like night one was successful so far. Push him a little farther, and break down the damn walls he's built around himself, followed by a long-probably all night and well into morning-cuddle session, trying to make up for what he's been missing for god knows how long. We have another six days until we go back. This is a very good start.

~~~Time skip~~~

I was right. Keith sobbed for hours, until his sobs turned to hiccups and dry, swollen eyes, and a tearstained face. ' _God, how long has he gone without finding some sort of emotional outlet?'_ Because no matter how you look at it, that kind of several hour cry session is the kind of think that builds up over _years_. That just simmers and bubbles quietly until suddenly you can't handle it and everything blows up around you. How long has it been since he had someone to cry on? How long since he's been hugged like this?-not like Hunk's hugs, which were the _best_ , making you feel warm and safe in seconds, and you just can't feel sad after one. But just someone holding him, not letting go, not trying to talk everything out and reason with him. Just to be there and let him let it out.

It broke my heart to see him like this. After hours of crying so hard, he fell asleep against me. It was a few hours after he had fallen asleep, probably one or two am if I could guess. I just laid there. I had shifted us a bit after Keith had fallen asleep, so now instead of Keith clinging to me while I've got my back against the armrest, I've got Keith laying on top of me, head on my chest, and my back against the couch. I'm rubbing circles in his back still, just like I did for my little sisters sometimes, and like my older sisters did for me. I'm staring blankly at the ceiling now, knowing I should sleep, but not really wanting to. Finally, I close my eyes,running one hand through the thick, fluffy mullet under my chin, and the other loosely holding his waist so he doesn't roll off the couch in the middle of the night-or morning. whatever. - an old habit I picked up from my sisters, who are all major sleep movers.

We had a lot to talk about in the morning.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry about the long wait! I kinda lost inspiration for this fic for a while. Now its back, and with my friend who is sorta-betaing this for me fangirling in my ear driving me, I seem to have found it. I own nothing. If I did I would have made Voltron much more violent, much more R-rated, and 100% gay. Enjoy.

Chapter three: Space-wood and a Should be Sob Story

Keith pov:

I groaned as light crept into my eyes. Who the fuck turned up the brightness in the ship again? I shift further into the bed. ' _If the alarm isn't going off, I don't need to be up yet.'_ I reasoned to myself sleepily.

Wait. My body froze for a second. ' _My bed does not feel like this.'_ My eyes snapped open, and the events of yesterday began to trickle into my sleep-fogged brain.

' _Oh,'_ I thought, letting my body relax. It's fine, I'm with lance on an Altean vacation planet. My racing pulse slowed. Wait. I'm on an Altean vacation planet. With Lance. For the next ten Earth days.

My brain took a moment to process this. I could imagine my mind being a cluttered, paper-strewn office, with little brain-workers scrambling around to find an answer to my problems. One of them stands up to where my mind-office-camera thing was watching them, and held up a sign written in large, red letters.

"YOU ARE FUCKED." It read. Shit.

I snapped back to the real world with a blink. I need to stop creating these weird scenarios, someday I'm going to start talking to them out loud again. That definitely won't go over any better than it did the last time.

I sat up, taking in my surroundings for the first time. I was laying on a faded blue couch, in front of a window with the curtains drawn back. Further inspection of the room revealed creme white walls, and warm, wood-colored flooring that probably wasn't wood. Effectively, it looks like a small country house from Earth-if you ignore the subtle glowing strips on the corner and edge of everything, and the data panels built into the wall farthest from me that showed the temperature and day of the week in Altean, I think.

In my inspection, I found no sign of Lance. Shit he saw me last night. I grimaced, today was going to be painfully awkward. Could I just hide? A muffled clunk from another room stopped my thoughts of self preservation. So did the heavenly smell tickling my nose. My stomach grumbled, and I soon forgot my earlier musings in search of breakfast.

I got off the surprisingly comfortable couch, and walked to the hallway. The duffel bag I had dropped last night was still sitting beside a possibly-wood table, and the front door further to the right of that. Nope.

Following the hallway to the left took me to a set of double doors, and a side hall that led to more rooms. Tentatively, I push open the double doors, behind which I can hear clinking and footsteps. In the lights of the-surprisingly Earth-like kitchen, I see Lance looking over his tablet while standing over what I'm pretty sure is a stove.

He looks up and smiles at me. "Morning Mullet, sit down and we can eat, the foods almost done." He gestured a spatula covered in pinkish goo towards a high table with bar stool-like seats on the other side of the kitchen before turning back to whatever the pink thing was that was frying.

I hesitated a moment, Lance's tone has been light and teasing, but his eyes had a slightly more somber glint to them. As I stood awkwardly in the doorway longer my internal panic rose higher. Lance turned back to me again, this time with a flat look that told me he would throw said spatula at me if I didn't sit my ass down.

I followed the spatula.

A few minutes later we were both eating over the tall, maybe-wood table, and sitting in the tall, maybe-wood chairs. The pink thing was something that looked like a crunchy pancake, and tasted something like potatoes and sausage, if they also had minty citrus in them. Still better than space goo. It went fine, neither of us talking. Which also solved basically nothing. I put my plate in the sink, and was about to start washing when Lance gently nudged my out of the way with his hip.

"I've got this. Why don't you go shower and get changed. The bathroom is the first door on the right, and clothes are in the last room on the right side of the hall. Grab anything, Allura gave us the go ahead." he assured me gently, already reaching for the dish soap.

I protested a bit, before getting shooed out of the kitchen. Well, there goes that.

"Once you're done, head back to the room where you get your clothes, I should be done by then." He finished, pinning me with a stare that allowed for no arguments, and walking back into the kitchen.

I stared at the door for a moment and sighed, before heading over to the "clothes room" Lance had indicated.

I pushed open the easy-swinging maybe-wood door and was surprised. It was a large, open bedroom. Sparse furniture of the same sort-of-wood was scattered against the walls, and a king sized bed with creme and grey patterned covers sat in the middle. The ceilings were high, and a portion of one wall curved outward into a cozy window seat overlooking a green field. To my left I found a writing desk, and a powered-off hover lamp. Past that was another, narrower door. Curious, I walked over and opened it.

Inside were definitely not the clothes that Lance instructed me to find, but a linen closet, filled with soft, fuzzy blankets in an array of colors. I shut the closet and scanned the room again. Beside the bed were two simple nightstands, each with a single drawer. The far wall held only the window seat-alcove, and a plush looking grey chair sat in the corner farthest from me. Across from the bed was a second door that I had missed, and a full length mirror.

As I reached to pull it open, I glanced in the mirror, and did a double take. My face was pale, and covered in tear-tracks from the night before. My eyes were bloodshot, red, and swollen, worsening the existing eye bags that seemed to have darkened. I looked like shit.

Grimacing, I turned away from the mirror and pulled open the door. It was a walk in closet, filled to the brim with a variety of clothes, most of which were in soft tones of grey, blue, and creme. _'Alteans really liked color schemes didn't they?'_ I thought, vaguely amused.

The clothes were not my usual, but looked incredibly comfortable. The only problem being that they were definitely made for people not my size. Or in my general comfort zone. I pushed back the tenth pastel dress, and grabbed something I thought was a shirt, before realizing it was also a shirt made for someone who was significantly curvier than I was. After a while of hunting through dresses and skirts, I found a set of sweatpants that looked about right, and a sweater that was probably about my size.

I wandered back to the bathroom at the other end of the hall, and was again surprised by the niceness of it. As the door swung shut behind me with a gentle click, I found myself facing another very Earth-like room. The spacious room was creme again, with two sinks to one side, followed by a built in cabinet, which ended at another door. I peaked my head inside the open room. Ah, there's the toilet. Past the mini-room was a shower cubicle, much like what I was used to on the ship. Unlike the ship however, beside that was a white, possibly-porcelain-but-probably-not-because-it's-in-space bathtub.

I shook my head slightly, Alteans certainly loved their color schemes.

Post shower I dressed in the soft Altean clothing. I definitely did not have an eye for clothing size. The pale pink sweatpants flopped under my heel as I walked, and the grey sweater hung nearly off of one shoulder, and extended a bit past my hands. I shrugged, oh well. At least it's comfy.

I padded into the bedroom, and while I didn't see Lance, I could hear some rustling from the closet, and figured he was changing. I chose to curl up in the window seat to wait for him. As I sat down, I had expected to find the seats to be comfortable, much like the rest of the Earth-like Altean things here. I did not expect to sink into them until my shoulders, and knees were all that was above the apparent pit of softness the Alteans called a window seat.

Lance chose that moment to walk out, and I saw a grin spread over his face. "I see you found the Altean secret: everything is squishy or unbelievably soft."

I gave him a heatless glare. "And you must have too, if you know about it."

He chuckled, and gave me a half sheepish, half mischievous grin in response, before seating himself on the corner of the bed.

The grin faded from his eyes a little as he leaned forward to rest his arms on his knees, "Ok, now, hate to be the person who plays therapist here, but I have been delegated that job, and if last night was any indication, you really need to talk about something."

I sighed and grimaced.

Lance looked at me seriously, "Keith, I have four sisters, and two brothers who are definitely not as tough as they seem. I know what it looks like when someone bottles things up so long that it explodes when something pushes their final button. What happened last night was definitely the result of a lot of stuff that never got dealt with coming to the surface at once." He took a deep breath and continued. "So, we are going to talk it out now."

I looked down at my cushion covered legs and thought about what to say next. "You're-you're probably right, but….I'm not sure where tostart." I say softly, my words beginning to run together as my nerves took over.

Lance's face softened, "Where do you think it starts?"

I looked up at him with a weak smile, "Long enough ago that I probably can't tell it all in an hour."

He just smiled gently, "Well, we've got six more days of leave cleared from Allura, and still the ride back to the castle. I think there's time."

I let my mind drift back through memories. Shit, it really did start a long time ago. I heaved a breath and tucked my knees up to my chest in the pillow-pit.

I bit my lip for a moment, "Ok, well, we know now that my mom is galran, right? Well, when I was a kid, I had no idea who she was. She and dad were...er, separated?" I stopped, that didn't sound completely accurate, but I decided to shrug it off and continue.

"I have basically no memory of her existing. Dad-dad really didn't like to talk about it. When I was younger I used to ask about her a lot, because, well, I didn't know. I never actually got any answers from him about that." I thought for a moment about how to continue. "Dad was...probably where I get my anti-social-ness from. He didn't talk a lot, and we didn't have the best relationship."

Lance's face darkened, "He didn't-" He stopped himself and seemed to calm himself for a minute, before continuing in a calmer voice, though no less tense "He didn't ever abuse you did he?"

I blinked-oh. "Wha-Oh, no. No no no." Shook my head, and a breathless sort of laugh rushed out of my chest. "Dad wasn't a warm person by any means, but he never hurt me. If anything, I think he just didn't know what to do with me." I admitted. "I mean, thinking about it now, whatever the circumstances he and mom met under, they had to be really weird for him. He's the kind of guy who really only went into town for a few reasons, grocery shopping, work, and going to the bar for a few beers. At least, before I was around. Then all of a sudden he's with a literal-probably purple and fuzzy-alien woman, probably thought he imagined the whole thing, and then however long later gets a half human infant dropped in his lap by her. I think he just had no idea how to handle any baby, much less one he was always watching to see if it would turn purple and he'd have to hide it from the government." I laughed at the image of my stoic, mechanic dad looking helpless as he holds toddler me, and prays to the god he doesn't believe in that toddler me didn't turn purple while he had a tantrum in public.

Lance seemed to find the same kind of ironic amusement in the idea as I did, and chuckled along with me.

"So, he wasn't dad of the year, pretty much ever. He also wasn't the worst. He did what he needed to-kept me fed, clothed, happy and healthy. We just were never close." My smile dimmed a bit. "I'm still not entirely sure what happened to be honest. One day-I was about six I think-I came home from school, and there was a guy from the police department there. He...he told me that I would have to live with my babysitter, Mrs. Boldstere-she was our elderly neighbor. I think she widowed before I was born, and took care of me while dad was at work. I...I'm not sure how much of this is true now. Or if there was something more to the story, but supposedly my dad died in a car crash on the main highway.

"I never saw his body-there wasn't really a funeral since I was his only relative. I..honestly wasn't too badly affected by it then. I'm not sure if I completely understood it at the time, or if I just honestly wasn't that affected by his passing; it only took me a month or two to settle into life with Mrs. B. as if he had never been there." I still felt bad about that. I don't think I even visited his grave once while I was on Earth, and now I am in another solar system every day.

"I was pretty happy with that set up I guess. The only thing that dad requested in his will that I was given was my knife-which apparently was mom's, and I was supposed to get it when I was twelve. I probably have some money that he left me on Earth, though I never actually saw it." My chest ached a little at the next memory that washed over me.

"Mrs. B. was probably the closest thing I had to actual family growing up. She was a retired army Medic, and about the craziest storyteller I've met to date." I chuckled a little as I recalled terrible-but good character impersonations, wild gestures, and a manic grin that seemed out of place on a woman in her seventies. "She was also sort of an artist I guess? She used to let me go down to the studio in the basement and play around with the paint and any canvasses she had scrapped." God I missed her.

"She never told me-probably didn't want to worry me over it-she had a terminal illness. Something with her heart I think. I didn't realize anything until a few weeks before…" My voice trailed off, and my hands gripped my knees closer to my chest. "She passed away two years after dad died, almost to date. Just a couple weeks before my eighth birthday."

My breath shook a bit and I tried to calm myself. "After that I got put into the system. I never really clicked with any of my foster parents. Some of them were really great, some of them...a lot less than great." I shoved back memories of raised voices and shattering glassware. "I always got moved around. I think the longest I was ever in one house was about ten months-just through a school year. The shortest was only three days. In total I think I was in 27 different foster homes between my eighth and fifteenth birthday. When I was fifteen, I was in my first year at the Garrison. They basically got me state clearance to be recognized as an adult as long as I was there-or until I was actually an adult.

"My first roommate was Shiro. I'm still not sure how, but we ended up hitting it off right from the get-go. We weren't roommates the next year, but we stayed pretty close. For about two years he was my family again. My brother." The last words faded to a near whisper, but Lance seemed to hear them anyways.

"The Kerberos mission," he said softly, as sad sort of understanding lit his features.

I nodded, "He was my backbone. Pretty much my only friend, or family that I'd had since I was eight, and then he was gone." I laughed bitterly. "After that I went a bit nuts. I started screaming at the higher ups, and demanding to know what happened. I just couldn't believe that a pilot as good as Shiro could have such a fatal crash. The week I turned eighteen, I got kicked out. I guess I should be grateful for that. They could have kicked me out three months earlier and shoved me back into the system. You probably know the rest to some degree. I found an old shack that dad had left me, and fixed it up to be livable. I go a little conspiracy-wormhole crazy for the next seven months, and start finding stuff that led me to Shiro's return to Earth. And by extension, you, Hunk, Pidge, and the Lions." I blinked, looking at the slightly changed light outside. "Wow. That...that actually fit in a lot less time than I thought it would take."

I looked over and found Lance staring at me with an unreadable look. His expression betraying little of his thoughts. Well, this was going to be fun.


End file.
